ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE SAYS MICHEL ROBERT.......

Michel Robert will line out for France in the first leg of the 2008 Samsung Super League with FEI series next Friday afternoon.  Now aged 59, and with a lifetime of extraordinary achievement already behind him, he is as passionate as ever about the horses he rides and the sport he very much enjoys.......

He is often described as "the consummate horseman", and not without reason.  He has honed his equestrian skills with a degree of penetrating analysis like few others.  From his earliest days when he accompanied his father Henri, a country doctor in Corbelin in the Isere region in France, as he visited patients in his horse and cart he learned to love "the smell, the look, the sound, the feel of horses".   He maintains that love to this day.  "For me, if you are natural with a horse you can establish a love with the horse and together you can do anything" he says.

He learned his trade by working with the best in the business.  In his book "The Secrets and Methods of a Great Champion" he describes how he gleaned the importance of concentration from "the Englishman, Stillwell", how he worked as a groom for Jean Sarrazin - mucking out, feeding and riding at least 15 horses a day - and how with Marcel Rozier, Marc de Balanda, Patrick Le Rolland, Daniel Biancamaria, Hans Winkler and dressage expert Christian Forlini he put in many more years of hard grind.  Michel did not choose the easy route to success, but he would be rewarded many times over for his unflinching effort.

As an all-round horseman it is hardly surprising that he first made a name for himself in the sport of eventing, going right to the top to represent his country in the Olympic Games at Munich in 1972.  He decided on a discipline-change however "because I had too much sensitivity for the horses.  I felt that at that time three-day-eventing was very hard on them and for me it was no longer a pleasure any more.  Today the sport is very different" he points out.

He quickly rose to the top in show jumping too and, ten years later, took team gold and individual bronze at the World Championships in Dublin riding Ideal de la Haye.  That was followed by team bronze in Aachen in 1984 and team silver in 1994, while at the Olympic Games in Seoul in 1988 and Barcelona in 1992 he helped France to show jumping team bronze.  

It is Michel's mental attitude, partnered of course by a large degree of ability, that has taken him to the top and he is keen to share his faith in self-belief.  Positivity is the key starting point - "sincere encouragement from others is extremely rare" he says.  All too often it is a case of "don't do this, don't do that.....there is nothing like it for programming the worst possible situations" he believes.   His philosophy is to start with the simple principle that "one is as one is" and that if you make mistakes it is because you need to make them.  In his book he describes being given a very negative assessment during his eventing career - one that would have left many others devastated and without any hope of improvement for either himself or the horses he was riding.  But he says, with some obvious satisfaction, "the following year I became French Champion with one of them...and three years later was the best French rider at the Munich Olympic Games with the other".  

He says he owes his positive outlook to Marc de Balanda, father of Gilles - "he really did encourage me with all his heart" Michel explains, and his training methods establish trust, leading to complicity between pupils and trainer. 

"Most of our handicaps, weaknesses and complexes are, above all, in our heads" he says adding that everyone is capable of making progress. 

He is looking forward to competing at La Baule this week.  It has been a happy hunting ground for him over many years having won the Grand Prix on a number of occasions and topping the Derby line-up as well.  He took the Derby title at the French sea-side venue one year ago with Koro d'Or - "I think it is a special class" he says, and his 2008 nations cup ride will either be this horse or Mme. Pompadour.  He has yet to decide.  

Apart from this opening leg, the 2008 Samsung Super League with FEI will be missing that touch of French sophistication this year.   Last year the nation that set the series alight with a double of victories in the first two seasons was relegated, so French participation this week, while important, will not count toward the standings.  That's not a position that Michel Robert wants to see in the future - "last year was unusual, normally we are strong" he says.  He sees great potential however in many of the newer French team riders, particularly Kevin Staut - "we have a good group of professionals coming along" he insists and he believes France will be in a position to field a much stronger squad by next season. - "and it will include Michel Robert - always Michael Robert!" he says with a laugh.

When other riders express surprise at this man's continuing hunger to improve as a rider he replies "the day my riding is perfect is a day that will never come".  His quest for excellence never ceases and this week those watching the first leg of the new Samsung Super League with FEI series will get a chance to witness one of the great masters at work....and what they will see will be fairly close to perfection.....